Letter to the editor: Appalled at Steelers' honoring 'criminals'

At one time during the 1980s at the Bridgeville Post Office, almost half the letter carriers were Vietnam veterans. They included John Zaracki, 173rd Airborne, who fought in the battle of Dak To; Dan McCready, a Marine who participated in the Battle of Khe Sanh and was one of the 6,000 Marines who were surrounded by 20,000 North Vietnamese soldiers; Lt. Dennis Deal, Army Ranger, 1st Air Calvary Division, 7th Calvary Battalion, who fought in the battle of Ia Drang, the first major battle of the Vietnam War, when they were surrounded by 3,000 NVA; Charlie Shafer, severely wounded during the 1968 Tet offensive; and Chuck Kovatch, my next-door neighbor of 43 years and a U.S. Marine in Vietnam, shot in the chest by a North Vietnamese soldier (the bullet missed his heart by an inch). I was a medic with the 44th Medical Brigade.

Many of my Vietnam buddies are appalled at the Pittsburgh Steelers putting the names of criminals on their team helmets and honoring them like Black Lives Matter, which I think is racist and Marxist. It is utterly disgraceful.

Here’s a tip for the Steelers: Why don’t you honor a real hero like Medal of Honor winner Sgt. Maj. Thomas Payne, who risked his life saving 70 Iraqi hostages from an ISIS prison in Iraq?

The Steelers’ Sept. 14 game drew 10.8 million viewers, down 17% from last year’s Monday Night Football game. I am shocked that even that many would watch these oppressed millionaires honoring criminals.

Al Bianchini

Mt. Washington